A late entry into the race for L.A. Mayor is City Councilmember Nithya Raman.
Raman represents Los Angeles’ 4th District, which includes from Reseda, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City and Toluca Lake to Hollywood. She won election in 2020 as a progressive with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, running on a platform of racial justice, homeless and housing reform.
She has been controversial in her office as a city councilmember, voting early against banning homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools and day care centers, and saying we should “defund the police” early in her career. She has been compared to New York politicians Mayor Zohran Mamdani and representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democratic Socialists who have fought for expanding city services
In her six year on the council, her district has been plagued by crime with home invasions and burglaries spiking, and many residents blame Raman and her lack of support for LAPD.
Her current platform as a mayoral candidate includes fixing basic rights for residents such as potholes and streetlights. “Los Angeles is at a breaking point,” she said, “And people feel it in the most basic ways.”
She also now says that the LAPD must not shrink any further, and has changed her position on the city’s “mansion tax,” which she supported in 2022 but now says in getting in the way of more housing construction
Raman is an urban planner who was born in India. She moved to the United States at six years old and earned a bachelor’s degree in political theory from Harvard and a masters in urban planning for MIT. She returned to India and founded a research firm to improve sanitation in the city of Chennai. In Los Angeles she headed a homeless nonprofit and the was executive director of Time’s Up that supported victims of sexual harassment.
She is now looking to the base that got her elected to the council – pro-housing advocates, Yes in My Backyard supporters and Democratic Socialists. She will have a hard time with her fellow councilmembers, nine of whom have already backed Bass and feel that Raman somehow has betrayed Bass who helped her win re-election in 2024.
The mayor’s race was shaken up when developer Rick Caruso and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath decided not to run after much speculation, and candidate Austin Buetner dropped out after his daughter died.
Candidates now include reality television star Spencer Pratt, community organizer Rae Huang, Better Angels founder Adam Miller, valley resident and businessman Robert Goodman and approximately 35 others. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in June, the top two will move to a runoff.
